Before the Storm
by Cynderella3
Summary: A mini story of what happened in between the games A New Beginning and Eternal Night. A sequel to my first story "The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning" Enjoy :)
1. Chapter 1

**Before the Storm**

**Author's Note: **Hey! This is going to be like a mini story! It's gonna be what happens between the games _A New Beginning _and _Eternal Night._ So, like my last story, I don't take credit for everything as the makers of the game own some of the things I'll be writing! Let me know what you guys think! It'll be a short story, maybe a couple of chapters.

**Chapter 1: She's Evil**

It was the night of Spyro's big triumph. He had defeated Cynder, only to reveal that she was just like him. It turned out that the Dark Master had turned into an evil, relentless monster, when in reality she was just a child. She didn't want to do any harm to anyone, but the evil spell she was put under twisted her thoughts and made her do whatever the Dark Master wanted her to.

While everyone was sleeping, Spyro sat out on the balcony. He hadn't had a relaxing night since before he met Flame. But even while there was no more guardians to save, or apes to fight off, Spyro couldn't bring himself to relax. He had a strange feeling, as he looked out into the night.

He thought to himself, _What's going to happen next? I stopped Cynder, but not before she inserted the last crystal, freeing the Dark Master. Then again, I never actually saw the Dark Master leave the portal. Terrador told me to not worry about it for now, but I can't help it. I feel it; something bad is going to happen._

Just then, Cynder walked out on to the balcony. Spyro looked at her, and gave her a welcoming smile.

"See anything?" she asked, in a small voice.

"No," he replied, looking back out at the ruined city, "but I've got a bad feeling."

A horrible feeling of guilt swept over Cynder, "Me too…"

Spyro looked back at her, and noticed she was looking down. _She looks sad; I should probably change the subject…_ Spyro thought quickly of something else to talk about.

"So, the view is nice, huh?" he asked randomly, looking out at the **burned, crushed, ruined** city. (Which Cynder destroyed).

Spyro realized what he said the moment he said it. _Oh my god, I'm so stupid._

They both stared straight forward with wide-eyes, not looking at each other. Neither of them knew what to say in this awkward situation.

_I can't believe he just said that… _Cynder thought to herself. _What do I even say to that?_

"Um, yeah!" Cynder broke the silence, "Especially at night, when you can barely see it…"

Then, at Cynder's joke, they both relaxed a little and let out a chuckle. Spyro looked back at her again and smiled. She tilted and turned her head a bit, while giving a charming smile. Humour was something that came naturally to Cynder, especially when she was nervous. This was something that she had just discovered about herself.

_She's pretty, _Spyro thought.

"Okay," he started, "how about you pick the topic now, since I haven't really proven myself to be very good at it."

Cynder laughed a little and agreed. She thought for a moment about what to ask him and just decided to ask, "So, who are your friends?"

"Who? Flame and Sparx?" he asked. She nodded in confirmation.

He explained, "Well, Sparx is my brother, an-"

"Wait…what?" she interrupted.

He smiled and looked to the ground, "It's a long story."

Spyro continued to explain how he and Sparx used to live in a swamp, which is in the middle of the forest. He'd been with Sparx and Sparx's parents since the day he was born, so they are his family. One day, while him and Sparx were playing around, they went too far away from the swamp, and were attacked by apes. That's how Spyro found out he wasn't from the swamp, as he learned that he could breath fire while fighting the apes.

"That's also how we met Flame, and Ignitus," Spyro continued, "And then we made our way to the temple, and you know the rest."

Cynder nodded and looked down slightly, "I'm sorry, Spyro."

Spyro looked confused, "For what?"

"For…for everything! For everything that I did to you, and your home. I ruined it all." Cynder let a tear fall from her eye.

Spyro stepped closer to her, "Hey, don't…don't cry. I don't blame you for what you did, no one does! It's not your fault, Cynder. Hey, look at me."

Cynder looked up at him, and met his warm, comforting smile. Then, she couldn't help but smile back.

Back near the door that leads to the balcony, a pair of blue eyes was watching both of them. Sparx Neither of them noticed. Sparx had been watching them ever since Cynder went out of the balcony with Spyro.

_I don't trust her…_ Sparx thought to himself as he watched them. _Spyro's not the smartest dragon out there, and he has no idea how dangerous Cynder is! Has he forgotten that she tried to kill us! Like… more than once! _Sparx stared at them in disgust. He hated how they were acting like friends. Spyro was his friend, not hers. _She's evil._

A sudden urge came over Sparx to stop their conversation. He opened the door and quickly flew in between them.

"Hey buddy, what's up?" Sparx asked, only looking at Spyro.

Cynder smiled, "Oh, hey Sparx!"

Sparx didn't look at her; he continued to look at Spyro. Cynder looked away, and lost her smile, realizing she'd been completely ignored.

"Um…" Spyro started, "I was just talking to Cynder. Before _you_ came."

"Okay well we should probably go, right? And get some rest?" Sparx suggested, and then he looked at Cynder and whispered, "We kinda had a long day."

"Um, _Sparx!_" Spyro said loudly to protest against Sparx being so rude to Cynder.

Then, a new voice interrupted their conversation, "What is going on out here?"

They all looked up at a big red dragon, Ignitus.

"Nothing, Ignitus," Spyro stated apologetically, "We were just going back inside. Sorry we woke you."

Spyro walked back inside quickly, and Sparx followed, not saying anything. Cynder stayed where she was and looked up at Ignitus, scared that she was going to get in trouble.

"Come on, Cynder," Ignitus said, "come inside and get some rest."

She followed Ignitus back inside the temple. For the night, she slept in the same room as the guardians, who slept in the room with the pool of visions. Spyro and Sparx went to sleep in their room, which they shared.

No one woke up until late the next day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Memories**

The next day was pretty relaxed for everyone. No one really talked that much; they just enjoyed having their first day off. Spyro wanted to talk to Cynder, but he figured that Sparx would pull the same thing he did yesterday, and he knew that must've hurt Cynder a lot. He didn't talk to Sparx for the whole day, because he was upset towards him. Sparx stayed with Spyro for the morning, but when he got tired of being ignored, he went to go and bother some of the other dragons.

First, he flew into the room with the pool of visions, where Ignitus was. Ignitus was busy looking into the pool of visions. Sparx flew beside his head, looking where he was looking. After a few seconds, he looked at Ignitus. Ignitus knew he was there, but chose not to say anything, hoping that Sparx might just go away. Instead, Sparx started to fly around his head. Ignitus rolled his eyes.

"Hellooo?" Sparx finally said.

Ignitus continued to stay silent, still looking into the pool of visions.

Knowing it would annoy Ignitus, Sparx decided to sing the only song he knew, "Swing low, sweet chariot-"

Sparx stopped when Ignitus looked up at him, unimpressed. He took a long breath and let out, "May I help you, Sparx?"

"Hmm, " Sparx thought, "No. Not really."

"Very well, " he sighed, "Why are you here then? Where's Spyro?"

Sparx shrugged.

Ignitus knew he was lying, but he didn't know why. "Well, go find Flame, then," he suggested, "or Cynder."

Sparx flew out of the room. _Jeez, this sucks. Spyro's mad at me, Flame's been acting weird ever since we got back, and there's no way I'm gonna go talk to Cynder._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_"I saw you!" a woman's voice yelled, "You can't lie to me, I saw you!"_

_ "I-I'm sorry" a man's voice replied, "It didn't mean anything. You have to believe me. I promise. I'm sorry." _

_ The woman continued to yell, "I don't care! You still did it. I don't care if you were drunk again."_

_ "I know…" the man said quietly._

_ "I can't stay here anymore, Ignitus," she said, "I don't want to fight in front of him anymore."_

Flame woke up from his dream. He hated those dreams the most. Right before his mom left the temple for good, her and Ignitus never stopped fighting. He remembered that they started fighting because Ignitus would often get drunk, and his mom didn't like that especially since Flame was so young. What Flame didn't know was that he aw the reason for Ignitus' drinking. Ignitus wasn't ready to be a father; he didn't want to take on the responsibility. After that, they started fighting about everything. And then one day she just left. She didn't even say bye. He hated her for that.

He got up and walked out of his room. He thought about going into the room with the pool of visions, but he figured that his dad was there and didn't feel like seeing him. He took the long way around the temple and made his way into the training room. He saw Cynder sitting in front of the big dragon statue. She was staring up at it, expressionless. He decided to walk over and talk to her, as he hadn't introduced himself yet.

"Hey," he said in a low voice, "I'm Flame."

"Hi," she said brightly, "I'm Cynder…but you know that."

"Heh, yeah," he said awkwardly.

Cynder started to apologize about anything she ever did before, but he wasn't listening. He was too busy staring at her. Not because he was attracted to her, but because he felt like he's seen her before (other than when she was considered a monster.) He's seen her emerald-coloured eyes before, but he doesn't know where. He was too lost in his thoughts to realize that she stopped talking.

_Wow, this is weird, _Cynder thought._ He's just, like, staring at me. What is he doing? Is there something on my face?_

"Um…hello?" she asked him.

Flame snapped out of what he was thinking about, "Oh, sorry. I just… you look like someone that I know."

Cynder smiled a little, not really knowing what to say. "So, yeah, I'm really sorry about anything I ever did to you," she looked down.

"Oh…" Flame said. He didn't really know what to say to her. He knew that she was under the control of the Dark Master, but she killed his mom. He wasn't quite ready to forgive that so easily. Still, he told her that it was okay and that he understood what she went through. He decided to not tell her what she did to his mom, because he didn't think telling her would do any good; it would just make her feel worse.

She changed the subject, "So, what is this room?"

"It's the training room," he explained, "It was a part of school to come here a couple times a week and train with one of the guardians. You'd train with the guardian that possessed the same element as you."

"So, did you train with Ignitus?" she asked.

He looked down a bit, "Uh, yeah."

She was confused at the way he replied to her, "Tough teacher, huh?"

He looked at her and smiled a little, "You have no idea."

They laughed as Flame told her stories about all of the guardians, and some of the other dragons that taught him. He was a big troublemaker in school alongside his best friend Derrick. Flame didn't stop to think about how he missed everyone and everything; he just enjoyed telling Cynder about how it used to be. Also, Cynder didn't stop to think about how much guilt she felt for taking all these things away from him. Flame and Cynder got along perfectly; they had a lot of things in common personality wise. They let their problems float away for a while as they talked and laughed together.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Dreams**

_"Spyro… Spyro…" a haunting voice whispered, "Spyro…"_

Suddenly, someone woke Spyro up from sleeping.

"Spyrooo… Spyro?" Sparx called.

"Sparx, what's wrong?" Spyro asked his friend.

Sparx stared at him, "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you! You were rolling around like crazy in your sleep."

Spyro looked down, confused. He did have a bad dream, but he didn't know what it meant.

"Anyways," Sparx continued, "I came here to say…sorry. About Cynder, I mean."

Spyro didn't say anything.

"You know, I'm not saying that I trust her now, and I'm gonna be best friends with her, but… I can be a bit nicer…" Sparx pouted, "…If you want."

Spyro smiled, "That'd be great, Sparx. Thanks."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ A small black dragoness was sitting in a tiny cage, surrounded by apes. She didn't know why they stared at her the way they did. Every once in a while, one of them would come over and shake her cage, or start yelling at her, trying to scare her, and they did every time. She felt like crying each time they did that, because she had no idea who they were or why she was forever locked in her small cage. She's never left the cage; she'd been in there since she was born. Three times a day, a very large ape named Gaul brought her food, and she would devour it. She liked Gaul, whenever he was around, none of the other apes would bother her. They were scared of him. _

_ "She needs to be strong and powerful for the transformation process," she heard Gaul telling some of the other apes, "If she's too weak, she may die during the process, and then we will have failed the Dark Master."_

_ Gaul turned to look at her in her cage. The young dragon stared straight back at him with her emerald eyes. She didn't know what the transformation process was, but she didn't like the sound of it._

Cynder woke up. _Wow…_ she thought. She hadn't thought about what it was like before she was put under the Dark Master's evil spell in forever. It's been about a week since Spyro saved her, and this was the first day that she hasn't felt horribly guilty about what she did.

_Maybe I could learn to forgive myself after all… This place is finally starting to feel like home. It's definitely better than living with those apes. I mean, every once in a while I catch Sparx giving me the evil eye…but at least I'm not stuck in a small cage. _

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_"No!" he screamed, "Mom! No!" but it was too late. His mother was gone._

_ He watched as a group of apes covered with armor dragged her away, leaving a trail of blood. Tears were running down his face. He heard an ear-piercing scream, looked up, and suddenly he stopped hearing all of the yelling and the fighting. Cynder. She was staring right at him. She didn't know who he was, but he knew her – everyone did. He was paralyzed with fear, but he kept waiting for something to and nothing did. She stared deep into his warm, red eyes. He couldn't stop shaking._

After waking up from his dream, Flame laid awake in his bed. He's had the same dream three nights in a row. Everyday, it becomes so much harder to talk to Cynder, even though they got along so well.

_She killed my mom…_he thought._ She KILLED my mom._

Flame was torn. He didn't want to act like Sparx and be a total jerk towards Cynder, but he also found it hard to bring himself to forgive her for what she did. _I'll just try and avoid her, I guess._ So, with his new plan, he got up to go and get some breakfast. He sat and ate with Terrador. Once Ignitus came to join them, Flame casually got up and walked away, not looking at or saying anything to his father. This was how it was everyday. He never spoke to Ignitus, and he found it easier that way. He found himself to never be in the mood to deal with him. He wasn't scared of his dad anymore; he almost believed that his father would never hurt him again. He was mostly scared of how he would react if his dad said something that made him angry. He was really good at getting angry easily. It was something that he was sure got passed down to him by his dad, unfortunately.

He soon found out that not speaking to his father, and avoiding Cynder was becoming very lonely, which made him sad.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sparx went into Flame's room and saw him just lying there.

"Hey, man. What are you doing?" Sparx asked.

Flame looked at him, staying where was, "What does it look like?"

"Well, come on!" Sparx encouraged, "I wanna show you something!"

Flame took a moment to think about it, and decided that there was no use lying around being depressed.

He jumped up from his bed, "Okay, let's go!"

Flame ran after Sparx who was flying towards to door, and then they were outside. Sparx started to fly towards the burnt down city.

"Wait," Flame stopped him, "where are we going?"

"I found something really cool yesterday. When Spyro was ignoring me I got super bored and decided to explore."

Flame looked back at the temple, and then towards Sparx. He whispered, "Well, I don't think we're supposed to go in there."

Sparx's jaw dropped, "Oh, come on! Who are you, Spyro? I thought you were a badass."

Flame gave him a sly look, "Haha, okay, let's go then."

Flame loved the idea of breaking the rules, especially when he knew it would bother his dad so much.

They ran off into the city. Sparx led Flame to one of the many huts that had been destroyed. Some huts had been completely demolished, while others had only been slightly damaged. Something seemed familiar about this hut to Flame.

Flame walked in slowly after Sparx flew in. _Oh my god… this was my home. This was where my mom took me on the night of the raid. _He looked around at everything. Most of they're things were still there. The blankets they owned were sprawled along the floor, covered in dirt and ash. Then, he looked at Sparx, who was holding a necklace with a ruby crystal pendant. Flame's eyes shot wide open.

"Look at this thing, imagine how much it's worth!" Sparx said excitedly.

Sparx put it around his neck, pretending to wear it, even though it was much too big for him. While dancing around with the pendant, he suddenly lost his grip on it, and it started to fall to the ground. Flame immediately jumped towards the pendant, and slid on the ground as it landed in his hands.

"Woah…uh, nice save," Sparx said while scratching the back of his head. He wasn't so sure why he tried to hard to save it.

Flame hesitated, but then decided to tell Sparx the truth, "Sparx… this belonged to my mother. She used to wear it all the time."

"Oh…" Sparx suddenly felt pretty bad about almost destroying it. He figured his mom must not be alive anymore.

"Can we go back now?" Flame asked. He wasn't in the mood to fool around anymore.

They made their way back to the temple in silence. Sparx didn't know what to say, nor did Flame. When they got back, someone was waiting for them to return. A red pair of eyes was glaring down at them when they walked through the door.

"Uh…gotta go!" Sparx told Flame before quickly flying away.

Flame looked down, trying to avoid the angry look in his father's eyes.

"So, how did you find out where we were?" Flame asked.

Ignitus took a breath, "The pool of visions really does work, you know. What is it you have in your hand?"

Flame looked at the pendant, and then raised it up to show Ignitus. Ignitus recognized it as well. He reached out to take it from Flame, but when he started to pull it away, Flame tightened his grip on it. Flame kept staring at the pendant for a few seconds, and then finally let it go.

Ignitus held it close to him as he observed it. Then he looked at Flame, who was starting to walk away slowly.

"Flame, stop," he said quietly.

The young dragon stopped and turned around halfway, not fully facing Ignitus.

Ignitus held out the pendant towards his son, "Here."

Surprised, Flame looked up at Ignitus and slowly took the pendant from his father's hand. Then, he ran back to his bedroom. He fell asleep while holding his mother's necklace to his chest. He was so happy to finally have something left of his mom.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Training**

Flame wore his mother's necklace all time ever since Sparx found it. It was the only thing he had left of her; he never wanted to let it go. Sometimes, at the end of the day when he was alone, he'd speak to it, as if it were her. He'd tell her that he missed her, so, _so_ much. He found himself to be disappointed every time, because there was never any reply.

A guardian's job is to keep order in the city, and to worship the dragon ancestors. Guardians are supposed to be heavy believers in the ancestors. As a guardian's son, Flame should believe in the ancestors too, but he didn't. At first he didn't want to believe simply because his father _did_ believe, but the more he thought about it, the more the ancestors made no sense to him. The young dragons are taught in school that the ancestors are supposed to be the protectors of the dragon race, otherwise known as the guardians of the past. But if they're supposed protect everyone, then why did they let his mother die? Why did they let his best friend, Derrick, die? Why did they let all of the innocent dragons die? He thought that if the ancestors did exist, then they were pretty pathetic. He never thought about these things for that long because it made his head hurt.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey, Sparx!" Cynder called.

_Oh god…. _Sparx thought. "Um, hey," Sparx said as he turned around slowly.

Cynder rolled her eyes. She knew he didn't like her, but she'd gotten used to him by now. "Do you know where Spyro is?" she asked.

"Probably somewhere having weird dreams again…" he replied quietly.

"Wait, what?" Cynder looked concerned, "What…what kind of dreams?"

Sparx put his hand over his mouth, "Never mind. I think he's outside!"

"Okay, well thanks," Cynder gave a small smile, and then took off outside.

Sparx hovered where he was for a moment, watching the door the Cynder just went through, expressionless. Then, he decided to follow her. "Can't be too safe!" he said to himself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A large ape sat on a large throne in some sort of cave. He had a large helmet with spikes that resembled a dragon's, and his left eye was completely green. He was surrounded by hundreds of other apes, cheering for him.

"Gaul…. Gaul…Gaul…" they chanted.

"Soon," Gaul spoke, "the night of eternal darkness will be upon us. Evil spirits will once again roam our land. But our enemies are prepared to defend the temple."

All of the apes started to yell in excitement. They were ready to attack the temple.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Come on!" Cynder yelled, "Here it is!"

Cynder was leading Spyro and Sparx to the training room. She wanted to show them something. Spyro hasn't gotten his powers back since the night of the big battle, and she felt bad. So, she thought she'd try and help him get his powers back, so that she could feel better about it. Ignitus told her that the guardians were going out for a few hours, so she thought that this might be her only chance.

Sparx was extremely nervous. "Oh, good! We get to spend the day inside the creepy dragon room!" Sparx said out loud, sarcastically. He'd hoped that they would've stopped, but they kept going. "Ugh," he sighed, "I need new friends…"

Cynder made the tall dragon statue sink into the ground, just as the guardians did when they trained Spyro.

"I don't know, Cynder," Spyro said looking down, "I'm not even sure how this works."

"Relax, Spyro. It'll be fun!" she assured. "All you have to do is stand outside the circle in the middle, and whatever you think of appears!"

As Cynder spoke, a dummy ape appeared in the middle of the room. It was the same sort of ape that Spyro learned all of his fighting and element skills on. "Try it!" Cynder encouraged. Sparx watched from a distance, like usual, keeping a close eye on Cynder.

Spyro gave the dummy an unsure look, "Okay… here goes nothing!" And then he ran up to the ape, took a deep breath, and out came nothing at all. He tried a few more times, and got the same result. Spyro looked down, disappointed.

"Keep trying!" Cynder yelled. But he couldn't do it, no matter how hard he tried.

Sparx flew beside Spyro, "Ha! Nothing!" he joked.

Spyro was embarrassed, especially in front of Cynder. He didn't want her to think that he was weak.

He looked up at the ape one more time, and gave one last try. He took another deep breath, and let out all that he could, and a few flames made their way out of his mouth, burning the ape dummy.

Spyro brightened up, "Woah, I did it!"

"See? It was only a matter of time," Cynder smiled.

Spyro puffed out his chest as she walked by, "Give me something more challenging."

Spark rolled his eyes, "Yeah, Cynder. What are you thinking?"

"Alright, tough guy," Cynder accepted. "Try this one."

As she tried to make a larger ape dummy appear, to her horror, Gaul appeared instead. "Cynder," he called as he swung his staff at her. She screamed and jumped out of the way.

Gaul was cornering Cynder as Spyro was yelling, "Cynder! End it! Make him go away!" Spyro jumped in between Gaul and Cynder, trying to protect her.

"I can't!" she told him. Spyro tried to attack Gaul, but his fire breath disappeared again. "Oh no…" he said. Then, he looked up at Gaul who was now cornering the both of them. Gaul smacked Spyro so hard that he flew across the room into the wall. He didn't want Spyro; he wanted Cynder.

"Cynder…" Gaul called again. He got closer and closer to her.

"Do something!" Sparx yelled.

Spyro got up slowly, and then saw Cynder looking up at Gaul, who was about to strike her. Some sort of fury came over him, and he started to attack Gaul. He quickly slashed Gaul's face several times, and then he disappeared.

Cynder walked slowly over to Spyro with her eyes wide open, "Spyro! How…how did you do that!?"

Spyro couldn't answer her, because he had no idea.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Tricks**

Flame walked in and saw the three of them, Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx, in the middle of the training room. "Uh… what are you guys doing?" Flame asked.

"Nothing!" they each said in unison.

Flame stared at them suspiciously. He wasn't going to tell the Guardians that they were acting weird, but he knew that they were doing something that would get them in trouble. "Well, the Guardians are back… just to let you know."

"Okay," Cynder said quickly with a nervous voice, "thanks!"

After Flame left, Cynder gave both Spyro and Sparx a panicked look. They still needed to bring the giant dragon statue back up before the Guardians walked in and saw that they'd been using the training room without them. She quickly ran over to the door and pulled the lever that would make the statue rise again. She tried to pull it, but it got stuck halfway down. She looked into the small window of the door, and she saw the Guardians starting to walk into the room with the pool of visions, which was right beside the training room.

_Shit!_ She thought. This was her idea, so she knew she'd get in trouble if they found out what they'd been doing. "Spyro!" she whispered, "Come over here and help me pull this down!" Spyro ran over to her immediately and started to pull. Cynder called Sparx over as well, "Sparx, can you go and distract the Guardians? Make sure that they don't come in here before we get the statue up!"

A bright smile came upon Sparx's face, "Haha, sorry, Cindy! You got yourself into this mess."

"Please, Sparx!" she begged desperately.

Sparx looked at Spyro, who was staring back at him. "Come on, Sparx. Just do it."

After lowering his eyes at Cynder, he finally agreed to do it. "Fine, but you owe me."

So, Sparx took the long way around to the Guardians' room. Before he got there, he bumped into Flame.

"Hey," Sparx said, "Wanna help me with something?"

Flame hesitated, "Like what?"

"Spyro and Cynder … mostly Cynder, were fooling around in the training room while the Guardians were out. They can't get the statue to come back up, so Cynder got down on her knees and BEGGED me to distract the Guardians, haha." Sparx explained.

Flamed smiled a little, "Okay, but how are we supposed to distract them?"

"I have an idea…" Sparx stared at Flame mischievously.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Aaaaaaaahh!" A dragon cried out.

Sparx burst through the Guardians' door. All of the Guardians' head shot up.

"What's the matter, Sparx?" Ignitus asked, concerned.

"It's Flame! He tripped and he just started screaming his head off!" Sparx exclaimed.

They all began to run towards the door, "Where is he?" Terrador asked Sparx.

Sparx smiled and relaxed against the wall while they all ran out, "Oh, you know, just right out there."

Volteer quickly ran back in the room, and was headed towards to training room. Sparx flew in front of him, blocking his way.

"Woah there… where are you going? Flame's that way," Sparx told Volteer.

"Flame needs ice! I must go into the training room's medical closet to go and get some; you see… ice will help stop any inflammation in the-" Volteer was interrupted.

"Well, isn't Cyril an ice dragon? Can't he help Flame!?" Sparx asked desperately, continuing to block the door.

Volteer gave Sparx an odd look, "Of course not! Elemental ice is much more powerful than a regular pack of it. If Cyril did that then it would only hurt Flame further…" Volteer explained. "Now will you please move out of the way? I need to get in-"

Sparx interrupted him again, "No!"

"Well… why not?" Volteer asked.

Sparx looked behind himself, through the window of the training room, only to see that Cynder and Spyro were still trying to un-jam the lever to raise the dragon statue. _What am I going to do!? _Sparx thought. He looked back at Volteer, who was still staring at Sparx. Sparx put the back of his hand on his head, "Oh-oh my goodness…" he began.

Volteer looked shocked, "What's the matter, Sparx?"

"I… I think I feel faint…" Sparx said, slowly lowering to the ground. All at once, he stopped flying and started to fall. Volteer caught him in his hand, and lifted him up to get a closer look. "Volteer…" Sparx whispered in a weak voice, "I think I…. I think I see the light…" Sparx reached up to the ceiling. Volteer wasn't sure what to do.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Flame! Are you alright?" Ignitus asked, concerned.

Flame was lying on the ground, holding his arm while clenching his teeth, "Agh, I think my shoulder is dislocated…"

Terrador inspected Flame's shoulder, "It doesn't look dislocated to me…-"

"Well it is!" Flame yelled, glaring at Terrador.

Ignitus and Terrador looked at each other. Cyril was on the other side of Flame staring at the wall. He had no idea what to do, and was sort of bored. _Where is Volteer with that ice?_ He thought to himself.

"Okay, Flame," Terrador started, "I'm going to try and pop your shoulder back into place. Now this will hurt quite a bit…-"

_Oh no…_ Flame thought. He remembered his friend Derrick once dislocated his shoulder. He didn't remember how it happened, but he _did_ remember the scream that came out of his friend when his dad popped it back in for him.

Terrador and Ignitus started to lift him up. They put his good shoulder up against the wall, and Terrador put both of his hands on shoulder bad shoulder. Flame closed his eyes and braced himself for what was about to happen. Terrador took a step back and then shoved Flame's shoulder "back into place".

Flame clenched his teeth, "Nngh!" and then slowly slid down to the ground. _Fuck Cynder…_ he thought. He was holding his shoulder.

"Yes, it will hurt for a while, Flame," Ignitus told him, "But if you ice it each day, and-"

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Flame said, not wanting to listen to his father anymore. "Thanks, Terrador… I guess…" he whispered to himself. Then, Flame limped away from the Guardians. He made his way into the far entrance of the training room. Spyro and Cynder were still trying to fix the lever. Flame shook his head as he walked over to them.

"Move," he said to them. He then proceeded to lift the lever, push it forward, and then bring it down. The dragon statue started to rise. "You gotta push it," he told the two of them.

Cynder and Spyro both looked at Flame. "What the hell? How did you know to do that?" Cynder asked him, while giving him a suspicious look.

Flame wasn't sure what to say. He didn't want to tell them that he's seen Ignitus do it a million times while giving Flame extra training time and tips. "Uh, I just… thought it might've worked."

"Well, thanks, Flame. You really saved us." Spyro told him. Cynder didn't say anything, she just looked at Flame. She wasn't buying the story he just told them.

Flame lowered his eyes at both of them, "Actually, my shoulder saved you." He then quickly limped to the medical closet, grabbed a pack of ice, and then walked out of the room.

Spyro gave a confused to Cynder, not understand what Flame meant about his shoulder. Cynder looked back at Spyro and shrugged, "I dunno…" she mumbled.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Cyril was looking down with his eyebrows furrowed at Sparx, who was lying on the ground pretending to feel faint. "I'm sorry, what's the matter with you, again?" Cyril asked.

Sparx rolled his eyes, "I feel faint. You know, light-headed."

"Well, you don't look pale," Cyril pointed out.

Sparx took a deep breath. This was about the fourth time that they've had this conversation. "Well, Cyril, that doesn't change the way I feel. My head hurts a lot."

The rest of the guardians were sitting around the room, bored. They all knew Sparx was faking, except for Cyril, and they didn't seem to care why.

Cyril asked Sparx again, "Do you want some ice for your head? I can go and get some in the medical clos-"

"No." Sparx said dryly, looking straight up at the ceiling.

Everybody stayed silent for a couple minutes. Ignitus yawned.

"So, Sparx, tell me again what's wrong?" Cyril asked. All of the other Guardians sighed.

"Oh my god," Sparx said as he got up and flew towards the door. "You know, I'm actually fine now. Thanks, bye." Sparx flew out of the room and down the hall.

Cyril looked at the rest of the Guardians, "Odd fellow, isn't he?" he chuckled.

"Yes, Cyril," Terrador agreed, "he is…"


End file.
